“By comprehending that human beings are energy, • The Gerber Model (psycho-mind)

one can begin to comprehend new ways of viewing health
and illness.”
-Richard Gerber, M.D
The Nature of Disease and Illness:
A little history
• Western medicine was forged by the Cartesian
Principle
• Louis Pasteur: All diseases are the cause of microbes.
This later became known as “The Germ Theory”
• Claude Bernard: Disease manifests in a poor
environment ranging from poor eating habits to
emotional distress
• Western medicine never bought into Bernard’s
theory
• In the 1930’s the term “psychosomatic” was coined
to describe diseases and illnesses precipitated by
mental/emotional aspects
The Nature of Disease and Illness
• Western science has not been able to fully
demonstrate a concrete connection between stress
and disease, though closer steps are slowly being
made in mind-body medicine
Stress and Disease Connection
• Roughly 80% of all doctor’s office visits are related to
stress
• Current research indicates that between 70-80% of
all health-related problems are either precipitated or
aggravated by emotional stress (e.g., type II
diabetes, colds, flu, migraines, lupus, cancer, etc.)
“The body is the battlefield for the war games of the mind.”
• The Pellitier Pre-Model (piecing things together)
The Borysenko Model
• Borysenko outlined a dichotomy of stress-induced
dysregulation and a matrix describing the immune
balance regarding four classifications of diseases.
• “Stress alters the vulnerability of the immune system
to both exogenous and endogenous antigens
(cortisol destroys white blood cells)”
• Further research reveals that acute psychological
stress decreases NK cell activity through a profound
effect on cytokine production.
A Brief Exposure to the
Immune System
• The immune system is a network of several organs
throughout the body (e.g., bone marrow, thymus,
spleen).
• Lymphocytes are one of many Leukocytes. Most
noteworthy are the T-lymphocytes and B-
lymphocytes.
• Only about 2% of lymphocytes are in circulation at
any one time.
A Brief Exposure to the
Immune System
The family of leukocytes
– T Cytotoxic cells (T-cells that release
cytokines)
– T-Helpers (CD4)
– T-Suppressors (CD8)
Borysenko’s Stress and Disease Dichotomy

—Brian Luke Seaward Autonomic Immune

Dysregulation Dysregulation
The Dynamics Between Stress (overresponsive
and Disease ANS)
• To understand the relationship between stress and Migraines Infection (virus)
disease, one needs to understand that several Peptic ulcers All allergies
factors act in unison to create a pathological Irritable bowel AIDS
outcome including: syndrome
– Cognitive perceptions of a threatening Hypertension Cancer
stimuli Coronary heart Lupus
– Activation of the sympathetic nervous disease
system Asthma Arthritis
– Engagement of the endocrine system
– Engagement of the immune system

Psychoneuroimmunology
• A term coined by Robert Ader around 1980 to explain
the integrative dynamics of mind and body
• Pelletier defines psychoneuroimmunology as the
study of the intricate interaction of consciousness
(psycho), brain and central nervous system (neuro)
and body’s defense against external infection and
internal aberrant cell division (immunology) Borysenko’s Immune Activity Matrix
Overreacti Underreaction
Changing Paradigms in Health and Disease on
• While today there are many who still ascribe to the Exogenou Allergies Infections (colds and
Germ Theory (and variations of it with DNA defects), s activity flu)
new research continues to reveal that the biomedical Herpes
model of health and disease is incomplete. Endogeno Arthritis Cancer
• Research into various forms of complementary and us Lupus
alternative medicine (CAM) reveal that the dynamics activity
of illness and healing cannot be confined to the
biomedical model (the body is a machine with parts The Pert Model
to be fixed or replaced) • Pert’s model, based on her research and others’,
• The body is not comprised of many physiological strongly links the nervous system with the immune
systems, it’s one system! system.
• Various cell tissues comprising the immune system
Four Theoretical Models can synthesize neuropeptides to alter (- or +)
• The Borysenko Model (immune system) immune function.
• The Pert Model (nervous system)
 • Various cells throughout the body (stomach, spleen, • Stress-related symptoms that appear in the physical
etc.) can also synthesize neuropeptides. body are the manifestation of unresolved issues that
• Positive emotions can enhance immune function have occurred earlier, as a result of disturbances at a
(“molecules of emotion”) higher energy level.
• The Pert Model is supported and enhanced by other • Thoughts and perceptions and emotions which
researchers including the work of Kiecolt-Glaser originate in the various layers of subtle energy
(Ohio State University). cascade through the mind-body interface and are
• Medical students, stress and decreased decoded at the molecular level to cause biological
immune response changes (disease) in the body.
• Stress and the decreased rate of wound • What puzzles health experts is why two people
healing experiencing the same stressor can end up having
• Stress and the acceleration of the aging different illnesses. When looked at though the Gerber
process Model, based on ageless wisdom of energy healing,
• Many other studies on stress perhaps this begins to make more sense.
neurophysiology • Gerber’s model is also based on the contemporary
• Whereas before Pert’s findings, it was believed that work of Carylyn Myss, Donna Eden, Mietek Wirkus,
cortisol played the crucial role in immuno- Roslynn Bruere and others.
suppression, it is now thought that structural • Gerber’s Model is now the primary focus of research
changes in neuropeptides, influenced by emotional involving various forms of CAM.
thought, play the most significant role in immuno-
incompetence. A Brief Lesson on the
Chakra System
The Gerber Model Chakra Body Region Emotional Aspect
• Gerber’s Model uses a holistic approach or systems- 1. Crown Chakra Crown Spirtual issues
theory approach to health 2. Brow Chakra Head Cognitive issues
• The mind is not a series of biochemical reactions in 3. Throat Chakra Thyroid Self-
the gray matter of the brain. Rather, the mind is an expression/Assertiveness
energy comprised of both conscious and unconscious
thoughts, that uses the brain as its primary organ of A Brief Lesson on the
choice. Chakra System
• This energy, a subtle energy, surrounds and Chakra Body Region Emotional Aspect
permeates the body. 4. Heart Chakra Heart Anger issues
• Changes in energy, through changes in thoughts, 5. Solar Plexus Chakra Adrenals Anxiety issues
affect the physical body 6. Naval Chakra GI Tract Self-esteem issues
• Disease is a disturbance in the human energy field, 7. Root Chakra Sex Organs Security issues
which cascades through the levels of subtle energy
to the body, via meridians and chakras. Support for the Gerber Model
• Disease doesn’t begin in the body, it ends up in the • Electromagnetic pollution affects one’s health
body. • MRIs are based on electromagnetic energy, quantum
• We don’t have a mind in a body, we have a body in physics and the law of entrainment
the mind. • Military design of weapons based on human energy
field
The Gerber Model (diagram) • CIA use of remote viewing based on non-local mind
• Scientific studies validate many aspects of Subtle
Anatomy

Gerber’s Model of Stress

and Disease
“Thoughts are particles of energy. (Negative) thoughts are
accompanied by emotions which also begin at the energy
levels. As these particles of energy filter through from the
etheric level to the physical level, the end result is
immunoincompetence.”
-Richard Gerber, M.D

The Pellitier Pre-Model

• In 2003, 15 years after he first created this pre-
model, Pellieter stated that the Western medical
model is still stuck in the old paradigm, not fully
embracing the tenet of mind-body-spirit holism.
• Pellitier believes that a number of issues must be
fully addressed and understood before a complete
stress and disease model can be understood.
• Facts which fly in the face of the premise that “the
body is a machine” and “consciousness is a
epiphenomenon of neurochemicals in the brain.”
• These phenomena are commonly known as the
A brief lesson in Subtle Anatomy: “Ghost in the Machine.”
1. The Human Energy Field
(the human aura-electromagnetic energy) Ghosts in the Bio-Medical Model Machine
2. The meridian energy system • These events leave people scratching their
(based on Chinese medicine) “biomedical” heads
3. The Chakra energy system – Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD)
(based on Ayurvedic medicine) – Spontaneous remissions (e.g., cancerous
tumors, etc.)
 – Placebos & nocebos (belief systems)
– Cell memory
– Subtle energy healings & non local prayer
healings
– Immunoenhancement

Conclusion Drawn from Pellieter

• The only logical approach to understanding the
stress-disease/mind-body phenomenon is an
approach in which the individual is considered
greater than the sum of its physiological parts. One
must consider the spiritual dimension of health and
disease as well.

Target Organs and Their Disorders

• Initially or ultimately one or more organs in the body
is the recipient of stress-based neurological and
hormonal activity that causes wear and tear, to the
point where it no longer functions optimally.
• Disorders, at the present time, appear to fall into two
categories:
– Nervous system disorders and
– Immune system disorders

Nervous System-Related Disorders

• Bronchial asthma
• Tension headaches
• Migraine headaches
• TMJD (temporomandibular joint disorder)
• IBS
• Coronary heart disease

Immune System-Related Disorders

• The common cold and influenza
• Allergies
• Rheumatoid arthritis
• Ulcers and colitis
• Lupus
• Cancer